Why does my laptop fan make so much noise?

25 Sep 2012

Windows

Chrome 22

25 Sep 2012 | Windows | Chrome 22

I bought a new HP Pavilion laptop. It has 8GB of RAM, a Core i7 processor and 2GB discrete graphics. When I’m playing the game my laptop fan makes a lot of noise, though it goes away when I’m not playing it. I bought my laptop 2 weeks ago. Why does this happen?

28 Comments -

bonioloff

September 25, 2012

There are many possibilities, You use your computer with maximal power, You have not clean the fan itself, you or you not using the latest update of driver, so it not working properly and make a heat more. There are many possibilities, but for sure, just clean your fan first.

ferdinan Sitohang

September 25, 2012

When playing games, it consumes most of your laptop resources, which make it becomes hotter than the usual. So, your fan have an extra work to throw out the heat, which makes a lot of noise. Things that you can do is to make sure you give more space between your computer back and the table, by using cooler fan.

Sachin Kanchan

September 25, 2012

This is a common case scenario. happens with almost all the laptops while playing heavy or graphics rich games.

In case a laptop does not have a graphics card, it may behave similarly even in games with little graphics requirement.

Nothing to worry about. But if you have intense love for your new lappie, which is justifiable, I would recommend you get a laptop cooler pad or fan.

Costs around $20-25 or a bit more for a premium one.

Shayne Selwonk

September 26, 2012

this the best solution on here

Charlie Player

September 25, 2012

how could my fan be dirty..i just bought my laptop 2 week ago..
not a long time

benjamin

September 25, 2012

quite simple if you put ur laptop near the ground it can easily suck up a lot of dirt as an example.
when ur done using your computer u may put it in a bag or just leave it on the table it can suck up a lot of dirt this happen in most cases
but tell me what games ur playing and i will check it up later :)

Ar Jhay

September 25, 2012

agreed with Sachin Kanchan

games consumed much of the computer resources, you can check the using the task manager,.. cooling fan would be a great help also the room temperature is another factor to consider try to adjust the aircon. to a colder level.

Edzams

September 25, 2012

The fans purpose is to cool down the system and thus has sensors. These sensors enable it to detect when the machine is hot thus switch on or off, spin faster or slower.
Also where you use the laptop counts. You should use it on a flat surface where there is space around it for the heat to escape.

Alan Sjostrom

September 25, 2012

The hotter a computer gets the harder the fans will work.
Some machines are better than others, my desktop is almost silent until i fire up something resource hungry (usually something from my vast collection of games) then all the fan start to ramp up to remove the heat. usually Smaller diameter fans, like the ones in laptops make a higher pitched noise because they have to run at a higher RPM to get the volume of air flow required to keep the hardware cool, this is why the smallest fan in my desktop is 120mm the cpu included, but i have left the GPU fan as standard. As you have a Laptop you don’t have too many options with replacing fans. Have you tried putting it on a laptop cooler to try and keep the heat down in the first place while you are gaming?

Dan Valentin

September 25, 2012

it’s not about the fan’s dirty ( in 2 weeks only if you play in desert), probably a overheating one ( i recommend you some CoolerMaster laptop’s cooling http://www.coolermaster.com/category.php?category_id=3620),cause you said :”though it goes away when I’m not playing it ” .If you get this annoying noise even when you dont’ pkay ,you may check to see if there are updates available on hp site, or if not could be a manufacture problem.So ( i asume you have warranty) go to a hp showroom.
Go check to see available updates, than if the noise persist go to http://www8.hp.com/us/en/support-drivers.html or their HP Service Partner listed.

Yashodhan Bhatt

September 25, 2012

Thats an incredibly common scenario….it makes noise simply because it moves at rapid rate…and it rotates rapidly only when it finds the need to cool down the temperature of laptop…and as far as the noise is concerned,you can prevent that by maintaining your laptop’s temperature…for that just purchase a simple notebook/laptop cooler…Good day friend!!

HLJonnalagadda

September 25, 2012

Common with notebooks as they dont have any ventilation. Gaming basically is very hardware intensive, so a good notebook cooler would come in handy in a situation like this. Coolermaster makes some really cool ones.

jrasulev

September 25, 2012

It is common for HP laptops, just because cooler tries to chill graphic card, CPU and hard-drive. Many of people with HP laptops, who I know personally, confirm that their coolers are very noisy.

Ahmed Khalil

September 25, 2012

this mean it is more noisy in case of HP labtop

Domie

September 25, 2012

Yes

Gustav Brändström

September 25, 2012

Is the noise the noise of air moving (like out of the fan) or is it a mechanical noise? If it is air movement, see all the comments above and below. If it is mechanical it can be a bad fan bearing (I know it is new, but fans can break right away) or it can be the hard drive and/or dvd-drive that is also making noise. HPs are loud.

GrrGrrr

September 25, 2012

as someone suggested, get a cooler.

when playing games your laptop is working hard, and hence the fan also has to work hard to keep the components cool. so the fan noise.

Erlis Dhima

September 25, 2012

I had the same problem.. What I did was, opened the laptop, cleaned the fan..
After doing this, I used a spry for cleaning in the axis..
This problem happens, since a lot of dust gets placed in the fan axis, and makes it impossible to move freely, and sometimes doing noises.. This is what happened to me, and maybe it’s the same problem for you!
But, I have more than a year, that my laptop fan don’t make any noise, any more…

Ahmed Khalil

September 25, 2012

when play games the processor and display card consume more power and this leads to more heat production and this need the fan to work faster to make effective cooling

Henry Lahman

September 25, 2012

Your laptop is hot
heat is not good for electronics

it uses the fan as a method of cooling
if you want to reduce the noise safely you need to cool the laptop down
if you want to risk overheating it you can download tools to change the fanspeed

playing games uses RAM, VRAM, CPU and GPU
these things get hot

Dimal Chandrasiri

September 26, 2012

this is a simple question. :) you know, a game is a lot of work for any device. whether it’s on a mobile device, a laptop or a desktop. the system has to render a massive amount of 3D data, as well as process all the game data. this give a lot of load to the processor and the GPU.

when the load gets high on the device, it makes a lot of heat.

so the device has to be cooled accordingly. since your laptop is a new one, dust is not an issue. what you are hearing is the fan speeds getting increased to cool off the internal parts such as the GPU and the CPU. GPU might be the culprit here. if you think this is annoying, try buying a cooling pad for the laptop and place the laptop on it while you play games. this will provide the laptop with additional cooling and the fans will automatically reduce its speed accordingly. :)

Happy gaming! :)

Nikhil Chandak

September 27, 2012

ask ur laptop company
So SIMPLE ..
!!!

cstruwig

September 28, 2012

The fan is compensating for the extra heat generated by you CPU and GPU when under load.

You will find the exact same thing happen when using 7zip to compress large files for instance.
Tip: Make sure that you notebook’s air vents are not obstructed.
Using you notebook on your bed or soft surfaces could restrict air flow.

Calle Sweden

October 1, 2012

I would think that it is dirty. My friend used a vacuum cleaner on the holes where the air came out, and it worked! But i do not recommend it, since it could destroy it :/
//Calle

Alex Perkins

October 3, 2012

The heat generated by the GPU and CPU needs to be moved out somehow, get a laptop cooling pad with a 180mm or larger fan.

Bumferry Hogart

October 11, 2012

I had a similar problem with my laptop (although it was 4 years old) it seemed that the fan was not balanced properly and was slightly rubbing against some wires.
If you clean the fan with some cue tips and blow out any dust or hair with an air spray can this might help. otherwise it could be a faulty fan.
Others have suggested on here that it could be that a driver is not upto date which could also be the issue.
I would try their suggestions first but a good clean out won’t do it any harm either.
good luck.

Roomy Naqvy

December 13, 2012

bonioloff is right. It is usually about cleaning the fan. I get that noise on my desktop and then one of those days, I take my PC to my technician, who just cleans it pretty well.

Ronald Harris@Best Computer Deals Reviews

January 28, 2013

Hi Charlie..

Maybe the spec’s of your laptop didn’t meet the requirement of the game :)
just my opinion..or you can use overclocking to boast the speed of your laptop.